HOUSTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The controversial Keystone XL
pipeline will receive President Obama's blessing and be built to
transport crude oil from Canada to Texas, TransCanada Corp
Chief Executive Russ Girling predicted on Tuesday.

Girling's confidence helps project a sense of inevitability
around the $5.4 billion project, which supporters say would
create badly needed jobs, and offset a recent unfavorable
Nebraska court ruling and more than five years of political
wrangling in Washington.

"It is the next pipeline that is going to be built" in the
United States, Girling said in an interview at the IHS CERAWeek
energy conference in Houston. "The marketplace continues to push
us to build a pipeline. It's the right thing to do."

Girling sought to reassure many of the Canadian company's
customers attending the conference, the largest gathering of
energy companies in the world, that Keystone XL ultimately would
open and be able to transport their crude oil to Texas
refineries.

The project has become a lightning rod for opposition, with
environmentalists saying oil spills would become common along
the Keystone XL extension and warning that the project could
hasten climate change.

Still, the U.S. State Department issued a report in January
that downplayed environmental concerns surrounding Keystone XL,
rankling opponents and buoying supporters of the project.

President Obama told governors last month that he expects to
make a decision on whether to approve TransCanada's Keystone
plans in the next few months, a step that would end the
long-running saga.
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